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Sunday, December 28, 2014

28 Dec - Blogs I'm Following

USS Donald Cook.(Reuters / Bogdan Cristel)
*Russia To Counteract NATO's Boosted Presence In Black Sea – Envoy -- RT*
Moscow is being forced to come up with countermeasures in response to
NATO's increased presence in the Black Sea, Russia’s envoy to the alliance
said following an announcement on the arrival of another US warship in the
area.
“Unfortunately, the Black Sea is becoming a place where non-regional powers
have a permanent presence. What they are doing there is unclear,” Aleksandr
Grushko said.
“Of course, we will take the necessary countermeasures,” he continued.
Grushk... more »

A few days ago we took a look back on the 1992 war between the police and
Body Count. They were hardly the only punk rock band to decry police racism
and violence-- just the band that the police felt most threatened by. MDC
never managed to sell the millions of records that Ice-T sold. Their music,
which you can hear in the video above, was less accessible... and those
initials stood, at least for a time when they moved from their native
Austin to San Francisco, for Millions of Dead Cops. They did a lot of songs
the police wouldn't have liked, like "I Remember" and "Dead Cops"-- a... more »

*America and Iran are two stupid lovers who have bad girlfriends. America
has Israel, who is abusing the kindness of America, and Iran has the Arabs,
who are ungrateful about what Iran has sacrificed for the Palestinian
cause. So they both deserve what they get for being stupid. *
*Wikipedia: *
Gary G. Sick (born 1935) is an American academic and analyst of Middle East
affairs, with special expertise on Iran, who served on the staff of the
U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Ford, Carter, and Reagan.
He has written two books on U.S.-Iran relations, in addition to a numb... more »

This June 24, 2014 article is from Innovation Africa Kigali, Rwanda. It
seems that Pearson– which already “has a significant presence in Saudi
Arabia”– has “pledged its support for a new education initiative” in Saudi
Arabia. Saudi King Abdullah is adding an extra $21 billion to the Saudi
Arabian education budget. Pearson is there– already– to dip into those […]

Kevin Kern, “Another Realm”
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a2JtNQublQ
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do
this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every
day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number
three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness
or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a
full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're
going to have something special.” - Jim Valvano

*Earlier this week, Béji Caïd Essebsi became the first Tunisian freely
elected president of the country.*
*"While Tunisia's commitment to elections and other democratic processes
has been inspiring, building deep roots for the democratic institutions and
values that can stand the test of time will take years. Still, the country
offers more hope than any other Muslim country shaken by the 2011 political
upheavals and deserves as much political and economic support as the United
States and Europe can muster."*
*-- the conclusion of a NYT editorial,* "Tunisia Wins Again"
*by Ken*
The... more »

This video features sailing ships and dolphins as well as sun drenched
shores. The music is from the CD/DVD "Deep Still Blue" by the band 2002.
The title of the song is "An Ocean Apart". The software used is Apple's
"Motion".
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BfPONyDT_WQ
Long playlist by 2002:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqq5ELgfnYU

"Sometimes galaxies form groups. For example, our own Milky Way Galaxy is
part of the Local Group of Galaxies. Small, compact groups, like Hickson
Compact Group 87 (HCG 87) shown above, are interesting partly because they
slowly self-destruct. Indeed, the galaxies of HCG 87 are gravitationally
stretching each other during their 100-million year orbits around a common
center. The pulling creates colliding gas that causes bright bursts of star
formation and feeds matter into their active galaxy centers.
*Click image for larger size.*
HCG 87 is composed of a large edge-on spiral galaxy... more »

*"How Things Are"*
by Chet Raymo
"Any global tradition needs to begin with a shared worldview - a
culture-independent, globally accepted consensus as to how things are. From
my perspective, this part is easy. How things are is, well, how things are:
our scientific account of Nature, an account that can be called The Epic of
Evolution. The Big Bang, the formation of stars and planets, the origin and
evolution of life on this planet, the advent of human consciousness and the
resultant evolution of cultures - this is the story, the one story, that
has the potential to unite us, becaus... more »

Alan Parsons Project, “A Dream Within A Dream”
"For my own part, I have never had a thought
Which I could not set down in words
With even more distinctness that which I conceived it.
There is however a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy
Which are not thoughts and to which as yet
I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt to language.
These fancies arise in the soul,
Alas how rarely, only at epochs
Of most intense tranquillity
When the bodily and mental health are in perfection.
And those mere points of time
When the confines of the waking world
Blend with the world of dreams.
And ... more »

*“Old Man, Old Man”*
"Young men, not knowing what to remember,
Come to this hiding place of the moons and years,
To this Old Man. Old Man, they say, where should we go?
Where did you find what you remember? Was it perched in a tree?
Did it hover deep in the white water? Was it covered over
With dead stalks in the grass? Will we taste it
If our mouths have long lain empty?
Will we feel it between our eyes if we face the wind
All night, and turn the color of earth?
If we lie down in the rain, can we remember sunlight?
He answers, I have become the best and worst I dreamed.
When I move my f... more »

"You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it.
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is
why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for
all that is life."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
Freely download “The Book of Life” by Jiddu Krishnamurti, here:
- http://keychests.com/item.php?v=ucpoaaqjnwg

As I was completing my final UFO book, I ran into a number of things that
were somewhat disturbing. Some of those were the ongoing Air Force attitude
that these things weren’t alien in nature, those who saw them were somehow
deluded, and it was the Air Force mission to convince people that UFOs were
an illusion. It didn’t matter to them how honest the witnesses might be,
how carefully they had made their observations, or what their level of
education or expertise might be. The Air Force mission was to stop the UFO
reports. If they had to lie about it, misrepresent the situation, hid... more »

*"Moving Through Darkness: The Places We Go"*
by The DailyOM
"Often it takes something major to wake us up as we struggle to maintain an
illusion of control. In life, most of us want things to go to the places we
have envisioned ourselves going. We have plans and visions, some of them
divinely inspired, that we want to see through to completion. We want to be
happy, successful, and healthy, all of which are perfectly natural and
perfectly human. So when life takes us to places we didn’t consciously want
to go, we often feel as if something has gone wrong, or we must have made a
mis... more »

I've always been a spiritually-inclined person, even-- or especially-- when
I was taking acid and wandering around the world from Sufi sites in Turkey,
Hindu sites in India, Buddhist sites in Thailand to Jesus' birthplace in
Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and a Jewish synagogue in Yangon. I worked in a
non-sectarian meditation center in Amsterdam for four years and experienced
all I could in the way of spirituality. Organized religion, on the other
hand, has never been for me. My father, a devout atheist, told me they were
all run by hucksters looking to enrich themselves with a minimu... more »

*Critical Decisions After 9/11 Led To Slow, Steady Decline In Quality For
Secret Service -- Washington Post*
The Secret Service began struggling to carry out its most basic duties
after Congress and the George W. Bush administration expanded the elite law
enforcement agency’s mission in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks.
According to government documents and interviews with dozens of current and
former officials, the recent string of security lapses at the White House
resulted from a combination of tight budgets, bureaucratic battles and
rapidly growing demands on ... more »

Sardonicky has the last word on our last words of the year. Don't miss
them. They are more than worth your time. The Game's Afoot! Dr. Pangloss
Amuck. Former IMF Chief Economist: Break Up Citigroup By Simon Johnson,
Project Syndicate 27 December 14 merica’s presidential campaign is already
well underway. The election is not until November 2016, and very few
candidates have formally

*“The Old Man And the Sea”*
by James Quinn
"Ernest Hemingway is one of the most renowned writers in American history,
with classics such as "A Farewell to Arms," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," and
"The Sun Also Rises" to his credit. He won the Nobel Prize for literature
in 1954. He constructed a new literary style characterized by lean, hard,
sparse dialogue. He influenced literature and young authors for decades. As
a teenager I was immediately drawn to his gritty realistic novels. There
was no nonsense to his novels. They always involved man’s struggle against
death and hardship. Mos... more »

The UK is a basket case. It is governed by people who despise the
indigenous population and who only see us in terms of how much money we can
make for them. Our safety, our opinions, our lives - these don't matter to
them one iota.
We 'plebs'; we factory-fodder; we ordinary people - we are hated by our
rulers. They insult us by daring to call our country a democracy, when it
is plain for all to see that if one doesn't play the 'soggy biscuit game'
at Harrow, Eton or similar degenerate's paradise, then one simply has no
chance of getting into parliament. Yes, their are women ther... more »

*Pakistani Officials Furious Over ‘Homeland’ -- New York Post*
Claire Danes is lucky no Emmy voters live in Islamabad.
Pakistani officials are furious with Showtime after watching the fourth
season of its hit show “Homeland,” which they say portrays their country as
an ugly, ignorant, terror-plagued “hellhole.”
The diplomats took copious notes of every slight while binge-watching all
12 episodes — including the lack of greenery in the depiction of the
nation’s capital, Islamabad.
They complained directly to producers of the Emmy-winning drama, but their
gripes fell on deaf ears, ... more »

Title: Terror Victims Confront ISIS Detainees on Iraqi TV. Source: MEMRI
TV. Date Published: December 28, 2014. Description:
In an Al-Iraqiyya TV program, titled "In the Grip of the Law," ISIS
detainees are taken to the scene of a terror attack, where they are
confronted by members of their victims' families. The program aired on
December 24.

“For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our
eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add
our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain
the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push
our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate
search for truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable
yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God
help us. God forgive us. We live on.”
- Gregory David Roberts, “Shantaram”

“You go up to a man, and you say, "How are things going, Joe?" and he says,
"Oh fine, fine — couldn't be better." And you look into his eyes, and you
see things really couldn't be much worse. When you get right down to it,
everybody's having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And
the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much.”
- Kurt Vonnegut

*"Argument: Stepping Back from Anger"*
by Madisyn Taylor, The DailyOM
"The emotional trigger than begins an argument may have little to do with
your present situation, but has dug up a wound. When we find ourselves in
an argument, we may feel like we are losing control of emotions that have
taken on lives of their own. When we can become aware that this is
happening, taking a deep breath can help us step back from the situation.
Once we can separate ourselves from the heat of the moment, we may find
that the emotional trigger that began the argument has little to do with
the presen... more »

Various fleeting thoughts have been floating across my mind today, falling
like snowflakes...
****
Firstly, Maureen Lipman on *Broadcasting House *describing the British
media's coverage of the Syrian conflict:
I've seen no pictures. I've seen nothing on 24 hour news. I am well
accustomed to seeing every rooftop that descends in Gaza because that's
where all the reporters are, in the same hotel, all chatting away and all
swapping photos. But as far as Syria's concerned, they're all absolutely
petrified to do anything or report on anything.
That seems to me to be a pretty good d... more »

*China’s Internet Is Freer Than You Think -- Brendon Hong, Daily Beast*
*China takes great pains to regulate Internet users within its border, but
civil unrest remains largely uncensored—and helps the government gauge
public sentiment.*
HONG KONG—Last year, I met a Chinese graduate student on a tour of the
northeastern United States before his first day at Harvard. At the time,
news about the purge of Bo Xilai, a princeling and member of China’s
Central Politburo, was still making waves in China. Over chilled beers, he
shared a few observations: “Everybody is talking about Bo Xila... more »

so, we have to leave it to the Italians to come up with a decent chemtrails
documentary?
The major contention of this documentary made by anti-War World group Tanker
Enemy is that The Weather or The Sky has been manipulated in various
chemical and electromagnetic ways to look like *NATURAL DISASTERS ARE
KILLING OFF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE* each event, and that this activity has
been UN-sponsored since 1966. The producers of this documentary suggest
that this is the role of these so-called chemtrails, "To evoke natural
slaughter and deterioration of the human species on a massive scale."... more »

I leave early in the morning for St. Mary's, Georgia where I will join the
annual King's Bay nuclear submarine base protest vigil on New Year's Eve.
This alternative New Year event has been going on for something like 35
years. While I lived in Florida I must have attended more than 20 of
these. Folks hold a retreat, share food, and review their activism at the
Crooked River State Park which is located next door to the nuclear sub
base. I've missed these events since we moved to Maine in 2003 and was
excited to be invited to come and speak during the retreat this year.
(Presid... more »

This Daily Mail article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2888906/Miley-Cyrus-goes-topless-sultry-bedroom-snap-hits-censorship-Instagram.html
includes this line:
'Free The Nipple is an equality movement that's meant to empower women
across the world, against female oppression and censorship, as many
states
still have laws against public toplessness.'
The photos of Miley Cyrus that accompany the article have the nipples
obscured or airbrushed out... Hmmmm The Daily Mail obviously don't do
irony.

*Photo:* China's DF-41 missile
*Chinese Military Confirms DF-41 Flight Test -- Bill gertz, Washington Free
Beacon*
*Beijing says new multi-warhead missile does not change nuclear policy*
China’s People’s Liberation Army on Thursday confirmed that its military
conducted a flight test of a new long-range missile that U.S. intelligence
agencies say involved the use of simulated multiple warheads.
“China has the legitimate right to conduct scientific tests within its
border and these scientific tests are not targeting any country or target,”
PLA Sr. Col. Yang Yujun told reporters at a... more »

It's the quiet time, that part of the year betwixt end of term and January
2nd where nothing happens. At least as far as blogging goes, anyway. Should
writers venture into print their fare is the reflective post on 2014's
happenings, predictions of events to come and perhaps, just perhaps, a
meditation on Christmas telly. I won't be upsetting this apple cart, *it's
a holiday after all*. So here, just for you, are the most read posts
published since the beginning of the year. In reverse order they are ...
14. Identity Politics and Intersectionality
13. Obituary: Stuart Hall
12. Manag... more »

(By *American Zen*'s Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari Goldstein.)
Mrs. Flannigan asked me at the kitchen table today, "Do you think the
Civil Rights movement would've continued if Dr. King had lived?"
It's certainly a question worthy of unpacking, although trying to
predict alternate history is the slipperiest of slopes. One has to factor
in the men surrounding Dr. King at the time of his assassination in Memphis
in April 1968, the political landscape, the power yet the limits of
personal charisma, etc. Plus, one must look at the latter-day race
relations and try to extrapo... more »

First published on *K12NN Wire* on December 28, 2014
------------------------------
*"The capitalists, from the start, complained that universities were
unprofitable. These early twentieth century capitalists, like heads of
investment houses and hedge-fund managers, were, as Donoghue writes
"motivated by an ethically based anti-intellectualism that transcended
interest in the financial bottom line. Their distrust of the ideal of
intellectual inquiry for its own sake, led them to insist that if
universities were to be preserved at all, they must operate on a different
set of princ... more »

*The UN Is Scaling Back Its Troubled Peacekeeping Force In Darfur As
Violence Increases -- Business Insider/IBTimes*
The United Nations will cut its peacekeeping forces in Darfur after months
of intense pressure by government officials in Sudan, the New York Times
reported.
The UN has fielded its mission in Darfur, one of the largest peacekeeping
operations in the world, since 2007. But the mission has often been accused
by the international community of failing to protect citizens and the
withdrawal of peacekeeping forces comes at a time when violence in the
region is increasing... more »

The
mainstream media in 2014: No more than a black Op
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
TUCSON, Arizona -- No one spins wars better than CNN and no one kills
with drones better than the White House. The paid media in the US
marched to the tune of their handlers in 2014, continuing the rot and
decay of US manufactured news. The news became no more than a black OP, a
dark operation of the

The
U.S. and Mexico: Hand-in-Hand in Human Rights ViolationsBy Frontera
NorteSur
Censored News
Though little-noticed by the U.S. media, events north of the border bore
striking similarities to developments in Mexico in 2014. Like in the
mass protests that arose south of the Rio Bravo and then rapidly
extended worldwide over the police killings and forced disappearances of
the Ayotzinapa rural

*Here I am perched on this pale **blue** dot in space, Earth. Our Sun,
which is 4.7 billion years old, is located 26,000 light-years away from the
galactic center on one of the spiral arms of our galaxy ~ the Milky Way.
The Sun makes one complete orbit around the galaxy about once every 225
million years. In contrast, stars near the galactic center complete a lap
in a few million years or less.* *Most of our galaxy is relatively
uncrowded ~ the nearest star to our Sun, for example, is 4.2 light-years
away. Roughly 10 million stars are known to orbit within a light-year of
the galax... more »

Reuters / Shamil Zhumatov
*Afghanistan Against US Plans To Transfer Military Gear To Ukraine - Kabul
Official -- RT*
Kabul is against Washington's alleged decision to transfer weapons and
machinery left from its military mission in Afghanistan to Ukraine, an
Afghan presidential administration official told TASS. The issue will be
discussed with Obama, he added.
American specialists in Afghanistan are currently preparing US army MRAP
(Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles to be transferred to Ukraine,
according to the information obtained by the Afghan presidential
administra... more »

------------------------------
http://youtu.be/JAbdtSsy_dE
‘Bomb something that looks valuable’ - Norwegian NATO pilots told in Libya
- historian
*RT*
*Published on Dec 26, 2014*
Liberalism and secularism are considered to be cornerstones of Western
civilization, though many feel that their overemphasis has led away from
traditional values and ethics into exceptionalism, intolerance and
aggression. How have these factors influenced Western political thought,
and can history's lessons help us avoid major confrontation in such a
turbulent geopolitical environment? Oksana is join... more »

*Travel Chaos As Ukraine Suspends Transport Links With Crimea -- Euronews*
Thousands of vehicles have been stuck at the border between Ukraine and
Crimea, after Kyiv authorities reportedly blocked movements at two out of
three crossing points.
It comes after Ukraine stopped rail and bus travel between the mainland and
the peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March.
“It’s a total mess. The mess began right after the referendum (in Crimea),
mess on both sides,” said driver Mikhail Semin.
*Read more* ....
*Ukraine Crisis -- News Updates December 28, 2014*
Ukraine: All quiet on... more »

*AMC is running a complete Breaking Bad marathon.*
*by Ken*
If you're reading this now, chances are pretty good that you're *not *in at
the start of AMC's complete-series segmented marathon of *Breaking Bad*,
which began this morning at 10am ET/PT, 9am CT, and 8am MT (as best I can
tell -- if ever there was a time to consult your local listings, this is
it), but you've still got oodles of time to join in. run continuously
through Tuesday morning, December 30, then start and stop at various times,
with some repeats, timed to reach the end in time for the launch of the *BB
*prequel ... more »

From KETC, Living St. Louis Producer Jim Kirchherr looks back at the
ethnic, political and social conflicts taking place in East St. Louis in
the early 1900s. These tensions erupted into violence on July 1, 1917,
after police officers were shot.

There will be no need, after all, for us to don our Sherlock Holmes tinfoil
deerstalkers to investigate whether there's an orchestrated White
House-corporate media plot underway to gaslight Americans into believing
that their economic travails are mainly all in their heads. (see my last
post.)
The game's afoot, Watson. And since it's brain-damaging football season,
it's being advertised as a sporting event that we're all invited to attend.
The agenda is this: rather than acknowledge the most extreme wealth gap in
modern history and suggesting legislation ( say, higher taxes on the r... more »

Operator refuses to provide details but says "radiation in the area is
within acceptable limits"
"State nuclear power company Energoatom says the unit was disconnected from
the electricity net early Sunday to prevent internal damage to the
generator. It did not give further details, but said radiation in the area
is within acceptable limits"
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2014/dec/28/ukraine-nuke-plant-unit-taken-offline/
I interpret this quote as indicating that there has indeed been a radiation
release.

Yahoo is reporting that "Ukraine shuts down faulty nuclear power plant
reactor" December 28, 2014:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-shuts-down-faulty-nuclear-power-plant-reactor-104143422.html
I am very concerned about the Ukrainian reactor. There is almost no news
about the latest shutdown and the stories that I can find simply report the
basic fact of the shutdown (due to some unexplained electrical problem) and
provide no other information (e.g., see
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/28/ukraine-nuclear-plant-offline_n_6386690.html
).
Recall that problems were first reporte... more »

[image: rant-jpeg-b]
Sunday, and as usual it is time for my weekly rant..
I have had a lot of critics come out of the woodwork over the last while
claiming that I have been "neglectful" in not putting up more articles
pertaining to some of the major subjects of the day.... I used to put up a
multitude of articles every day a few years back, but I found it better
that I concentrate on subjects that I found to be of the greatest
importance, and to leave a lot of other subjects to other bloggers and
those who I stand behind as the "best" bloggers that I know.... Of course
many of th... more »

This is not a sponsored post. This is not a post about crafts or recipes or
special deals available only to readers of this blog. It's a post about
love. So if that's not your thing, check back again tomorrow. If it is your
thing, hopefully I don't mess this up too bad.
While we're busy going through disclaimers I should probably clarify this
post isn't written by Debra, the owner of this blog. This is her other half
(I won't say better because we all know that's not true).
I decided to take over posting today for one special reason: love. You see,
eight years ago today, a much youn... more »

A Shi'ite fighter, center, mans a heavy machine gun as he takes his
position on at the outskirts of Balad, north of Baghdad December 25, 2014.
(Stringer/Reuters)
*The U.S. And Iran Are Aligned In Iraq Against The Islamic State — For Now
-- Washington Post*
Iranian military involvement has dramatically increased in Iraq over the
past year as Tehran has delivered desperately needed aid to Baghdad in its
fight against Islamic State militants, say U.S., Iraqi and Iranian sources.
In the eyes of Obama administration officials, equally concerned about the
rise of the brutal Islamist gro... more »

http://www.globalresearch.ca/
On the second anniversary of the founding of the Idle No More Movement,
Irvin Studin writes:
There can be little doubt that the aboriginal question is by far the most
important moral question of Canada’s early 21st century. No other public
question in Canada has its historical weight, inertia and complexity.
But what is the aboriginal question for this century? Are we talking about
standards of material well-being for aboriginal people? Is it about social
status and professional opportunity? Or does the... more »

*Cameroon: At Least 30 People Killed in Boko Haram Attack -- Sputnik*
The militants of Boko Haram have killed around 30 people in Mbaljuel, a
village in the north of Cameroon.
MOSCOW, December 28 (Sputnik) — The militants of Boko Haram have killed
around 30 people in Cameroon, regional governor Mijiyawa Bakary told
Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The militants attacked Mbaljuel, a village in the north of the country,
bordering Nigeria.
"We do not yet have all the facts, but our divisional officers and security
officials are filling us in," Bakary told the agency Saturday, adding that
t... more »

*“Hold fast to the freedom of your soul, to the power of your spirit, to
the bright thoughts of your mind, and to the good feelings of your heart.
Treasure your good deeds as precious stones, which you have attained in
your life. They are your reward in life. Enjoy the path of light in which
you are walking, more than the lost path of darkness, which you have left
behind.*
*Prepare yourself, work hard, be ready, because the door of the Kingdom of
God will be open soon. You need to enter in as the light enters everywhere
freely. Be as light, if you would like to enter into the ... more »

*U.S.-Led Forces Formally End Afghanistan Combat Mission -- Wall Street
Journal*
*Afghan Forces Left to Battle Taliban Largely on Their Own*
KABUL—The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ended its combat
mission on Sunday, leaving Afghan forces to battle a still-resilient
Taliban insurgency largely on their own.
The International Security Assistance Force is being replaced with a
smaller force that will focus more narrowly on counterterrorism and on
training Afghan soldiers and policemen.
U.S. President Barack Obama in his Christmas address said the change in
mission mark... more »

I think the first thing we should do is take the Canada Elections Act off
the books. In the first place, the advantage of governments waiting for
opportune times to call an election is mitigated by the reality that a
government could simply time all sorts of tax-cuts and spending initiatives
to coincide with the "fixed" election date. In the second place, when the
government that crafted the legislation violated the spirit of it, what's
the fucking point? Here we've been, for a year now, guessing whether harper
will call a snap election, still under the same Act that's supposed to ... more »

Admin: By now you would have known that Neil Keenan is a fraud working for
the Cabal together with David Wilcock, Ben Fulford, Drake Kent Bailey,
Thomas Williams and the whole lot. Since being outed in Sept, 2014, the
Keenan Team had been fighting against the tide, in control damage PR.
But it is like trying to plug the leaks in the boat in mid ocean. Sooner or
later, the truth will sink in. His latest video, first released by his
Indonesian Kemo Sabe, Jo. H, on Dec 22, 2014 was allegedly recorded on Nov
22, 2014. But the evidence within the video itself, show that it could not
hav... more »

*Hundreds Of Passengers Remain Trapped On Blazing Ferry As Rescue Operation
To Free Them Is Hampered By Bad Weather And Gale-Force Winds Off Corfu --
Daily Mail*
* Ferry carrying 423 passengers and 55 crew caught alight off Greek island
* Evacuation of Italian ferry Norman Atlantic currently underway off Corfu
* Passengers still trapped on ship as rescue efforts hampered by weather
* Reports of explosions on board but authorities said no injuries reported
* Vessel had been travelling from Greek port of Patras to Ancona in Italy
Hundreds of passengers remain trapped on a blazing ferry... more »

The anthropogenic or "man-made" warming/CC camp is generally a parochial
and short-time reference hypothesis. I say parochial because they only
focus and blame carbon dioxide (CO2) as climate driver and generally don't
mention or discuss other natural contributors to climate forcing like the
Sun, galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), water vapor, Pacific decadal oscillation
(PDO) and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO), volcanoes, etc, And I
say "short-time" reference because they generally look back over the past
160 years only, in the mid 1800s which coincided with the end of the
li... more »

(*Click on Image to Enlarge*)
Elite soldiers of the Queen’s Guard have pulled back from public positions
at many landmarks in response to possible threats from Islamic extremists
*Retreating Of The Queen's Guard: End Of An Era As Palace Sentries Fall
Back In Face Of Mounting Fears Of New 'Lone Wolf' Terrorist Attack -- Daily
Mail*
* Security bosses have withdrawn Royal Guards from posts outside palaces
amid fears of a 'lone wolf' terror attack
* Elite soldiers of the Queen's Guard no longer allowed on sentry duty
alone and are accompanied by armed police
* But the measures have ... more »

*North Korea's Honey Trap Scheme Revealed -- The Telegraph*
North Korean defector reveals how rogue state sends female agents to have
children with foreign politicians, businessmen and journalists
North Korea has blackmailed dozens, if not hundreds, of politicians,
journalists and businessmen after seducing them with female agents, a
former elite North Korean politician has revealed.
In a scheme called "the seed-bearing programme", high-level visitors to
Pyongyang would be sent an attractive consort, only to find out several
months later that they have a child in North Korea.
... more »

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and feeling chipper. I tweeted
an upbeat statement about Bernie Sanders' likely presidential run: Just
once before we pass on, shouldn't we have a president NOT owned by Big
Business & Wall St.? It's still up to us http://bit.ly/1rr7eOe. And then I
started thinking about the implications of the "It's still up to us"
phrase. Is it? I revisited an interview Tom Hartmann had done (above) a few
months ago with Martin Gilens, Professor of Politics at Princeton
University. Gilens was on Hartmann's show because he co-authored, along
with Profe... more »

Traditionally this is the time of the year that we look back over the past
12 months and remember the highlights, both good and bad, in an effort to
'do better' in the coming year. I would suggest that perhaps we had better
keep our eyes firmly in the future lest we walk off the cliff from the
highlands of a vibrant democracy and fall into the swamp of
authoritarianism and tyranny, we have been traipsing through the
scrub-lands of oligarchy for some time now.
However when we have strayed from the path it is often instructive to
retrace our steps and see where thing went wrong and h... more »

*British headteachers' chief says after-school tutoring is 'child abuse'
and youngsters should be allowed to play with their friends instead of
being forced to do extra learning*
Sending children to tutors for up to two hours after school is 'child
abuse' and they should go and play in the park instead, according to the
leader of a head teacher's union.
Gail Larkin, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, said
children were being forced to sit through hours of unnecessary tuition by
pushy parents competing with one another.
She added that instead of two or three ... more »

*Social psychologists attack the "denier" accusation*
*Almost any Leftist writing with a pretense at scholarship is
conspicuously marred by its one-sidedness. Only "facts" that support
Leftist prejudices will be considered. This of course can only be
considered as propaganda and will do little to persuade anybody with some
knowledge of the field concerned. Jonathan Haidt and a few others have
come to realize that such writing is largely pointless. It will only
persuade those who are already believers.So in an effort to upgrade the
standards of scholarship in the soci... more »

David Mitchell has penned a satirical Review of 2015 (yes, 2015) for the
*Observer*.
It contains a sarcastic passage on the subject of BBC bias, from which it's
probably safe to assume that he doesn't believe it exists and that the BBC
is just super.
His own experiences of working for the BBC must have helped him reach that
conclusion, for if there's one thing you can say about topical BBC comedy
programmes, it's that they're always studiously balanced and politically
neutral.
You never find David Mitchell, for example, mocking the *Daily Mail,* UKIP,
posh Tories and Christian... more »

This morning's edition of *Sunday* was a celebration of the Church of
England's historic decision to appoint woman bishops.
It was guest-hosted by the BBC's religious affairs correspondent Caroline
Wyatt. Her studio guests - two Anglican vicars, a Jewish Orthodox feminist
and the vice-president of the Islamic Society of Britain - were all women
too. There was also an interview with Justin Welby.
Everyone was highly enthusiastic about the move. There was much talk from
Caroline of "diversity" and whether the Church "is finally an equal
opportunity employer", plus considerable us... more »

*"Sunni tribesmen take part in military training, as they prepare to fight
against Islamic State militants, on the outskirts of Ramadi, west of
Baghdad, Nov. 16, 2014. Reuters/Ali al-Mashhadani." Source: International
Business Times.*
*1. An excerpt from, "Iraq calls on US to arm Sunni tribes against ISIL"
Anadolu Agency, December 26, 2014:*
Iraq has called on the U.S. to arm 100,000 Sunni tribesmen in the country
against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to an adviser
to Iraqi parliament speaker.
Wahdah al-Jamili's comments came Friday following a meeting betwee... more »

Boris Yelstin, then-president and Putin, then-prime minister, in December
1999
*Putin's Extraordinary Path From Soviet Slums To The World's Stage -- Elena
Holodny, Business Insider*
Vladimir Putin may be the wild card in world affairs right now, but he
didn't gain that influence overnight.
The Russian President's ascension to power is filled with spies, armed
conflicts, oligarchs, oil and (of course) judo.
So here's how a onetime "nobody" climbed up the ranks to become the
"World's Most Powerful Person."
*Read more* ....
*My Comment:* The links that are provided by this article... more »

Anton Tumanov’s grave in his home town of Kozmodemyansk, 400 miles east of
Moscow, Russia (Tom Parfitt/The Telegraph)
*Secret Dead Of Russia's Undeclared War -- The Telegraph*
The Kremlin’s denial that Russian soldiers are fighting in Ukraine has left
families of dead servicemen searching for truth and justice. Tom Parfitt
reports
Anton Tumanov gave up his life for his country - but his country won’t say
where, and it won’t say how.
His mother knows. She knows that Mr Tumanov, a 20 year-old junior sergeant
in the Russian army, was killed in eastern Ukraine, torn apart in a rocket... more »

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I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.